What an awesome race night! These cars are really something special, as was the track.
So to come prepared, I practised. I practised a lot! But all of that was on an (nearly) empty track. And come race night, I soon realised that driving a car this size among 20-something others on this not-too-wide track was quite a different cup of tea.
Managed P7 in Q1, and a great R1 start got me up to 4th place, but upon approaching T3 in lap 1 there were so many cars in my view that I couldn't see my brake marks
, missed the corner and came back 11th. Not long after that I went a little wide in T1, overcorrected and shouldered Jack, who was passing me, off-track on the inside. Sorry mate!:oops:
Had some great fights after that with Jack, Jay, Ondrej, who was driving the car in true rally-style
, and some others, until a few laps down I slightly nudged Jay's cars rear under braking coming down from the Rollercoaster turn. That spun him off, losing us some places. Again, sorry for that:oops: .
To make matters worse, just one lap after that, while chasing Stuart, I fully lost control when braking for T1, went off on the inside and couldn't avoid Stuart who was just entering T1:oops: . Luckily he too could go on, but I stalled my engine in the process and nothing I could do got her running again, not even this trick:
and eventually I found that putting the car in neutral AND letting the clutch fully out magically makes the starter work...
so this was my first DNF in quite while. And considering my driving, maybe that was for the better.
Luckily, during the short break, Neil provided an equally simple as brilliant solution for my little problem: UN-assign the starter button, and it will magically restart itself when stalled! Thanks a lot, Neil!!
For R2 I felt I had to set something straight, both for myself and for the safety of my fellow racers
, so in Q2 I managed my fastest lap of all, which got me P6.
An OK start, and careful driving got me up to 4th after a few laps, with Eck on my tail for the rest of the race.
Although he was faster in some bits, he drove very carefully, and as I made no mistakes this time, apart from a hairy moment in The Climbing Esses on the final lap, and I felt at some point he'd just let me have it and so I finished 4th!!
But more important, no silly mistakes and no contact.
I did have the sweat dripping off my forehead though, as those were two very intense but awesome races! Can hardly wait for the next one!
Grats to Mate for the full package wins, and to the other podium finishers! Thanks again to Stuart for another masterpiece event, and to all who were there. Hope to CYA next time!